In late January 2022, Pepo Jurado (Ecuador) and I ventured into Valle Bader hoping to climb a new route on La Hoja. I had attempted a line on the east face a few years ago but was shut down due to a bottoming crack and an icy roof.

This time, we climbed a line on the far right side of the wall. We started on the first two pitches of the route Andúril (650m, 5.11 A1; AAJ 1997) before heading right into a continuous crack system we had spied in photos. We climbed sustained and sometimes very closed-off cracks (consistent 5.11). One section of aid climbing (A2) got us past a finger crack that shrunk into an almost nonexistent seam. That night, we bivied on a small ledge laden with gigantic diamond-like quartz formations.

The next day, we continued up sustained vertical terrain to the summit ridge, before traversing around to the west face and finding easier ground leading to the top. We named the route Cuarzo Menguante (700m, 5.11+ A2), after the quartz ledge and the menguante moon that accompanied us through the night.

— Sebastian Pelletti, Australia